1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to information processing apparatuses, information processing systems and computer-readable storage media, and more particularly to an information processing apparatus and an information processing system that store a print job to be executed by an image forming apparatus, and to a computer-readable storage medium that stores a program for causing a computer to store a print job to be executed by the image forming apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
For example, a Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2007-200284 proposes a printing system in which a print server is provided between a client Personal Computer (PC) and an image forming apparatus. This print server stores a print job that is set from the client PC, and transfers the stored print job to the image forming apparatus depending on a request from the image forming apparatus. In the printing system having such a print server, a user first inputs a print instruction from the client PC. The client PC sends the print job in accordance with the print instruction to the print server. The print server does not immediately transfer the print job to the image forming apparatus, but stores the print job in a storage unit such as a Hard Disk Drive (HDD). Thereafter, the user operates the image forming apparatus, and instructs the printing of the print job stored in the storage unit. The image forming apparatus acquires the print job from the print server in accordance with the instruction made by the user, and carries out the printing.
In the printing system described above, it is undesirable from the point of view of security to permit printing of a print job stored in the storage unit by a user other than the user who inputted the print instruction corresponding to this print job. Hence, a user authentication process is conventionally carried out when executing the print job in the image forming apparatus. For example, when the user instructs the printing of the print job stored in the storage unit, the user inputs the user's own authentication information, and the printing of the print job instructed by the user is permitted if the authentication process based on the authentication information is successful.
However, when it is found that the printing cannot be made after the operation of the user changes from the client PC to the image forming apparatus, the user may suffer considerable consequences. In other words, the user must return to the client PC and newly instruct another image forming apparatus to execute the printing. On the other hand, in a case where the image forming apparatus is set up at a remote location such as a location where the user is dispatched, the user cannot return to the client PC, and the user cannot obtain the desired document that should have been obtained by the printing.